Is there room in the market for yet another productivity software suite? Amazon Web Services reportedly believes there is, according to a report in the Information:
AWS is working on upgrades to its WorkMail email-calendar app and its WorkDocs file storage-collaboration app to make them more attractive to corporate customers, according to two people who do business with the company. AWS has also told some large corporate customers it’s considering bundling these apps with its recently launched Chime video conferencing apps into a new productivity app suite that will compete with Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365, according to a person who’s been briefed on the cloud unit’s plans.
The AWS productivity suite is still in an early stage of development and it’s not clear what apps it will include or how much it will cost, said a former AWS employee with knowledge of the project. An AWS spokesman declined to comment.
AWS has a storage and document sharing offering with WorkDocs and email with WorkMail, but lacks a core word-processing application. That big hole could be getting filled soon, according to the Information's report. AWS recently added a videoconferencing application called Chime, which would also play a role in the productivity suite.
While AWS hasn't confirmed its plans officially, the Information's report is well-sourced enough to provide confidence they're real. It may be more a question of when than if AWS launches a full productivity suite. However, it's not clear whether AWS sees such an offering as a cash cow, or more of a way to expand relationships with customers and drive more business toward its core infrastructure software offerings.
As the Information notes, Microsoft has had great success with this approach. Joint Microsoft Azure and Office 365 customers use eight times as much Azure capacity, CEO Satya Nadella has said.
It's also worth noting that Amazon's productivity tools aren't as mature and functional as competing offerings, which could make things difficult in head-to-head product evaluations, especially given the already low prices of competing offerings.
In the end, AWS and others need to forge a different path with their productivity suites, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Alan Lepofsky.
"While Microsoft and Google may seem to be the dominant players in personal productivity, several vendors feel the war is not one. Salesforce, Zoho and now AWS seem to be fighting for their portion of the market," he says. "For each of these vendors, the differentiators cannot simply be features. They must find her own angle for marketshare, such as integration with enterprise applications or size of partner ecosystem."
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